Saving Voices Part 4

transcribed by Teresa Martin Klaiber

June 2011

This is part 4 of a transcription of a cassette tape recorded in 1978 on Big Garner, Boyd County, Kentucky.

John Henry Klaiber:  Went up Sandy one time a huntin. Tryin to buy some cattle … talked to him. He said “well you’ll have to eat supper with me.” He said "you wanna drink before we eat?" I said  "It don’t make any difference if I do or I don’t." “By God,” he said “I’ve got it.”  Well I said "Let’s have it."  I had to go with them. Back up in there then you didn’t contrary them. You’d insult them if you didn’t eat with em.  We took two or three swigs of that moonshine and went in to eat. There was a beef head laying on the table and they hadn’t took the eyes out.  I sliced me off a piece and ate it just like they did.

Elsie Rucker Klaiber: Yeah, but John tell about the place you went up the road here and saw …spittin clear across the table and you decided to come home. Where was that?

John Henry Klaiber: Up the holler above Cline Stewart’s.  They was makin molasses up there. I was supposed to eat dinner up there.  I don’t know who it was now. He was a Reverend.  I went out and washed and the table was sittin here by the window. I washed outside and started walking around to go in and she spit across the table and out the window. [laughter]  Boy, that bothered me then but it wouldn’t any more. I just come on around went back in the field and went back to work.

Elsie Rucker Klaiber: Mrs. Toppin, we would buy butter from her.  She lived down here. Jimmy was pretty good sized…but anyway she had the best butter. And you know somebody was down there one day and they said “well my goodness,” that she chewed tobacco all the time. She wouldn’t let that husband come and open the fridgerator and get him a drink of water. Afraid he would get a little dirt on the fridgerator … I told John about it and he said “oh boy, she’s got good butter, though.”  …[tape damage]…and it was years before we discovered that she would let her daughters, when they went to the high school, stop and get her some chew.  We wondered why the daughter was kinda embarrassed about going to the store. She knew she had to bring that chewin tobacco back to her mother. She was the sweetist thing.

John Henry Klaiber:  Bought some cattle over there at Elkhorn City…and I had to drive them down the road. I started drivin them down and puttin them in the truck and three guys come up the road.  Couldn’t tell, they hadn’t shaved, their beards were long.  This feller walked up and said “Why the hell didn’t you try and buy my cattle?”  I said “Mister I didn’t know.” The guy said “They is as good as them.” I said “No doubt about it Mister.” You had to get along with people. I said “I’ll tell you what I will do I’ll go look at your cattle as quick as I load these. I won’t say I’ll buy em.” He said “You boys go up and get them cattle so we can look at them.” He went back down. Well I guess I walked two miles back there to look at them.  I was by myself.  That was when we lived in Ashland.  I looked at the cattle and he priced them to me. Of course I didn’t have money to pay for em. Oh I gave him so much down on them. Before he would take any money, I had told him “I am goin buy your cattle but it might be a week or longer for I can get back after em.”  He said “Boys, run them cattle in the pasture so the man will know what they look like when he comes back.” I stood there while he moved them cattle around past me … put so much down on them.  Well I got to go back quicker than I thought I would.  It was about one o’clock in the morning when I got up there. I just stopped where I was. It was a long way to the house and I thought I would sleep in the truck til  … someone grabbed me by the arm. So I didn’t know what was going on.  … It was that old man.  He said “Did you think my bed wasn’t good enough to sleep in?”  I said “Hell no, Mister, your bed sounds awfully good, but I didn’t want to disturb you.”  We walked about two miles up that holler and I went to bed in his bed. We had breakfast the next morning. Baked ham and biscuits and stripped gravy.

[Editoral note in background every time John Henry said an off color word Elsie whispered that I needed to erase that. I did not. Tk]

Teresa Martin Klaiber: What is stripped gravy.

Elsie Rucker Klaiber: He had to teach me to make stripped gravy [pronounced strip ped gravy].

John Henry Klaiber: Don’t you know what red eyed gravy is?  Ham….grease. Take your ham out and take a little water and milk  and flour. Put that in there and stir it up.

Elsie Rucker Klaiber: Lots of grease…  

John Henry Klaiber: Called Red eye or stripped eye either one. …[bad tape]…water just makes red.

Elsie Rucker Klaiber: His Aunt Martha [Martha Sexton Reece] could make dumplings and they was so good.

John Henry Klaiber: I would work midnight turns and had a couple of days off. Well I would drive some place and hunt me up a load of cattle.  If you come in around meal time they thought you ought to eat. Just about had too to get along with em.

Elsie Rucker Klaiber:  … to Reeces…right after we  were married and he was surprised they had cars sitting out and no chairs to sit in.  What was it they had?

John Henry Klaiber: They had a big stone. Uh Aunt Martha Reece, her husband’s sister lived up there; was still livin then. I went up there one Sunday. We pulled up and there was two brand new Oldsmobiles sittin in the drive way. And when we went to eat dinner why there was a bench behind the table against the wall and a few kegs to sit on….those big ole automobiles but they didn’t have chairs.

Elsie Rucker Klaiber: And he was amazed they didn’t cut the bread.

John Henry Klaiber: They broke it.  … dumped it out on a plate and didn’t even cut it…

Elsie Rucker Klaiber: I guess that was like Biblical times, you break the bread together.

John Henry Klaiber: Said you wasn’t supposed to cut bread you was supposed to break it.  How come you didn’t go along?

Elsie Rucker Klaiber: Clearing throat. We hadn’t announced – we were keeping it a secret. … I was already in the family. I had been in the family for two months before anybody knew it. [John Henry and Elsie Ellis Rucker Klaiber were married 4 August 1939 at London, Laurel County, Kentucky.] 

John Henry Klaiber:  Didn’t tell in case I wanted to get rid of ya. [Chuckles]

Elsie Rucker Klaiber: John said he never had a pair of shoes on til he got married [talking over each other].

John Henry Klaiber: …[garbled]...they just stayed with us see. Have some place to stay. Some of those boys come in from Indiana [Some of the Sexton family migrated to Indiana to work in coal mines.] Nobody wore shoes.  And this old woman went barefooted all the time. When they pulled up down there at the house there was the old woman out in the yard bare foot  …

Elsie Rucker Klaiber: What was that song you used to sing about Aunt Rhody? You used to sing it to Jimmy and all the little boys.

John Henry Klaiber: You sing it then! [Reciting] Go tell Aunt Rhody the old grey goose is dead. The one’s she been savin to make me a feather bed.  [Tape was stopped and conversation picked up later] You see I used to work at Armco and Bill [Prichard] worked at Armco. And they had the old poor house down there and Armco had a club house out of it.  It was gone before you went there…

We used Kerosene lamps here about twice, winter before last [power outage]. It went off along in the night and they quit taking calls they got so many. It was around zero. We fooled around here awhile and cranked up that gas stove in the wash room.  Enough to keep the pipes from freezing. Next morning I got up and called in there.  Had a report on it and they asked where abouts and I said up here on Garner and he said “Which Garner is it?” I said “Big Garner.” Oh he said there would be electric by noon that they were coming thru Louisey [Louisa, KY] with a transformer now. He said don’t open the deep freeze. I said “Freezer, Hell, I want heat!.”

That would have been in 1975 and as I write this we continue to have electric outages on a regular basis in 2011.  Big Garner was the last in the county to have telephone party lines as well.  After we married in 1968 and called home I spoke to everyone up and down the road.  Once I assured them we were ok they would hang up and let us continue our family conversation. 

I do hope you are enjoying these episodes as much as I am transcribing them.  It is a window for my children and grandchildren about the farm and area they have come to know and love as much as we do.  To be continued!

Saving Voices Part 3

 compiled by Teresa Martin Klaiber 

May 31, 2011

Saving Voices Part 3 continues with a transcription of a cassette tape during a summer visit in 1978 with the Klaiber family and their memories of growing up in Boyd County.  This segment talks about food.  You never left the Klaiber home hungry nor without a jar of Elsie's wonderful sweet pickles.

John Henry Klaiber: You always had to have something to eat or drink every place you went…

Elsie Rucker Klaiber: There were these stoves …and there was these pumpkins over these drying places. You know they dried the pumpkin.  And Aunt Minervy [Minerva Patton wife of William Vincent Sexton]  did it that way at that old Sexton house and gave Martha [Martha Klaiber Cox]  that cupboard.

John Henry Klaiber:  Uh they would put a, they would make a frame and put fine wire over it and hang it up over the cook stove and they would dry their stuff that way.

Elsie Rucker Klaiber: Apples, beans…

John Henry Klaiber repeating over wife: Apples, beans…

Teresa Martin Klaiber: I thought they hung them in the dark…

Elsie Rucker Klaiber: No over the stove to dry them.

John Henry Klaiber: Now beans

Elsie Rucker Klaiber interjecting: I used to string them and hang them out here in the sun, you know

John Henry Klaiber: Beans you would take a needle and run a string through them and pull them up.

Elsie Rucker Klaiber: Them’s leather britches.

John Henry Klaiber: Hang them up and let dry.

Elsie Rucker Klaiber: And let the flies speck em. [laughter]

Teresa Martin Klaiber: And what would you do with the dried beans then?

John Henry Klaiber: Well eat em!

Elsie Rucker Klaiber: They are called leather britches and buddy they are the gassiest things you ever eat. [laughter] Did you ever eat any Jim? Yeah I had some before Jimmy was born and the kids was up here, my nieces.

John Henry Klaiber: The bean was pretty good sized before you would string em and dry them.

Elsie Rucker Klaiber whispering so to not interrupt: You cook them all day long. … But Terri, everybody had leather britches, they called them.  That was just an old fashioned name for dried beans. And then they would put them in a bag and put them away for the winter. They may put some pepper or something in there to keep the bugs away.

But I had sauerkraut.  I used to make sauerkraut when we was first married. And one day, I think on Monday, the kids had been here, Harolds [Harold Rucker brother of Elsie] kids. Two or three of them. They would come stay while their mother [Virginia Wiley Rucker] went to college. Mom and I went down there and she said “Elsie you take two and I’ll take two. I can’t stand to see those five girls there locked up in that house all day long. Their so scared.” Up from Dog Fork they would throw rocks and everything you know at the house.  They lived in the school house. So I said well we will take two up there then. And on a Monday we had had hard bargains.  You know when you fried the chickens on Sunday we had the hard bargains. The necks and all the scrap parts instead of stewing them and make dumplings I just fried em. 

Teresa Martin Klaiber: What did you call them?

Elsie Rucker Klaiber: Hard bargains.

Teresa Martin Klaiber: That’s the left overs?

Elsie Rucker Klaiber: No that’s the part that joins the back.

John Henry Klaiber: It’s the piece of the chicken that went over fence above the legs.

Elsie Rucker Klaiber: It’s just nothing but the bones…that is just the way we cut them…that was just an old fashioned name for them. But anyway, Terri, we had these last nest of these dried beans. I had the Kraut and the kids had gone out here on the hill. It was two years before Jimmy was born [1945] and after my first baby was born [a little girl born and died 17 April 1945]. I got over there with them and got some good berries [if berries were in it had to be June/July 1945] and we made a cobbler. And the county agent – we had a screened in porch you know – before we remodeled our house. The county agent  came and John asked him to eat while I was in there.  And there were all those scrappy foods.

John Henry Klaiber: Why it was Henry Pope and it wouldn’t make no difference.

Elsie Rucker Klaiber:  And John said well we have some leather britches here and Lord we had leather britches forever.  And kraut and blackberry cobbler. Oh he enjoyed it but I was so embarrassed.

John Henry Klaiber: You see the way they used to make kraut. I don’t know if you know or not.

Elsie Rucker Klaiber: She was never raised, her family wasn’t raised [meaning that the first 11 years of my life I grew up in town.]

John Henry Klaiber: You see you would take a cloth bag and put it in a stone jar and cut your kraut up like ya was cutting slaw

Elsie Rucker Klaiber: With a kraut cutter.

John Henry Klaiber: Put the kraut down in there and make yer brine, salt brine strong enough to hold up an egg.

Elsie Rucker Klaiber: That is the old fashioned way.

John Henry Klaiber: Then you pulled your cloth bag together and tied it. Poured that up over it and put you a rock down over it.

Elsie Rucker Klaiber: A clean rock. You always scrubbed it.

John Henry Klaiber: Well it wouldn’t always matter if it was clean or dirty [laughter].

Elsie Rucker Klaiber: Terri, and you would cut the stalk. Do you know what the stalk is. That is the old fashioned name. You know the center, the part you throw away of the cabbage when you make slaw?

Teresa Martin Klaiber: The heart?

Elsie Rucker Klaiber: The heart.

John Henry Klaiber: Don’t you eat that? That’s the best part …

Elsie Rucker Klaiber: But pickle those and buddy they are real. And kraut juice, my mother [Barbara Elizabeth McGlothlin Rucker] couldn’t keep kraut juice cause we loved it so. We’d drink it and then she’d have to make new brine. Oh it’s a good laxative. … I can’t have kraut now …

John Henry Klaiber: It would be made a little different from what you buy I imagine.

Elsie Rucker Klaiber: It tastes better. The women make it now and just put it in quart jars and beat it down and they take a teaspoon full of salt, teaspoon full of sugar and boil in water and seal it up… then they would pickle their beans –

John Henry Klaiber: They would cover their jar over so nothing would get in it. Pickles the same way, corn.  Sulphur apples –

Elsie Rucker Klaiber: Oh yeah, sulphur apples are delicious. Elzema [Rucker Gallup] and Mildred [Rucker Hall] brought us some last year.  You have firm apples. You put them in a barrel and you put the sulphur down in there and leave them so many days.

John Henry Klaiber: You set it afire. Get a sulphur fire and put it in a barrel and put the apples over it and let them stay there til that sulphur burns up through em. It will keep I don’t know how long.

Elsie Rucker Klaiber: And they are the prettiest white ones. They brought me a gallon…

Teresa Martin Klaiber: What do they taste like?

Elsie Rucker Klaiber: You just rinse that sulphur off. You just slice them and fry them or stew them and make pies. They are the most delicious things you ever saw.  But she did hers in glass jars. And people  pickled their corn the same way.

John Henry Klaiber: You see you killed your own meat. Salt it down. Then you’d take it up and hang it and let it drip, drain. Then you’d build a fire under it and smoke it. Then when you would get it smoked enough it got brown all over with smoke. Use Hickory or sassafras. You didn’t want a fire blazing. Lay there and smoke, see. Then they’d take their meat down and wash it in alum water. Then rub it with brown sugar and black pepper.

Elsie Rucker Klaiber: Honey, it’s delicious.

John Henry Klaiber: Then put it in a paper sack,  or put a cloth over it and put it down in a cloth bag and hang it up in the smoke house and let it hang there.  Then you’d have ham to eat all summer.

Elsie Rucker Klaiber: Then they quit using that and packed them in  Morton Salt.

Teresa Martin Klaiber:  I remember dad bringing some home when he would go on a country call [John Geer Martin DVM] and paying him with ham and soaking it. …

John Henry Klaiber: To take the salt out of it.

Elsie Rucker Klaiber: They’d use Morton’s Salt. A lot of them it didn’t taste good like that.

John Henry Klaiber: Well then they didn’t have Morton’s Salt. I expect when your dad started he got a  lot of ham or chickens to help pay his bill.

Elsie Rucker Klaiber: He said [John Geer Martin, veternarian] that is how he got started with these farmers. You were a baby and he said “I got to get back, I’m in the dog house. I haven’t been home for supper in so many nights…been workin”

John Henry Klaiber: Used to pay the work hands. You had a work hand with you, you go down to the smoke house and cut them off a big chunk of bacon. And that would pay them for a day’s work.

Elsie Rucker Klaiber: …my mother would make ten gallon of pickled beans, ten gallon pickled corn, ten gallon of kraut. Then they would kill a hog. And they’d take that, well some people still …I was raised on pickled beans. My mother would get them out and fry them. We’d have a pot of corn bread, onions, tomatoes and everything.

John Henry Klaiber: Them pickled beans, let them be a little warm and sprinkle a little sugar over them. Not any better eatin.

Elsie Rucker Klaiber:  Well I will tell you. My mother, every night, there were seven of us in the family.  We had to string a whole quart, I mean a whole gallon crock full of beans. The next morning she would go out and dig some potatoes and we would scrape those potatoes. She took that big iron pot, three legged and put it on the fire and she would wash them beans and par boil them and get all the vitamins out. We didn’t know any different. She would get a little slab of meat. And sometimes she would put it down in the bottom  and she’d put those beans in  and they were all cooking early in the morning. Right before  dinner she would drop those potatoes in.  Then she would go out and get cucumbers and onions and slice them up and put them in vinegar. Then slice a big platter of tomatoes. And we knew she cooked up enough beans for our dinner and we left the other part for supper. And that’s what we ate and we loved it. Oh those green beans, potatoes, corn bread, cucumbers and onions.

John Henry Klaiber: You had corn bread and good ole bacon . Let the grease stay in it.  Pour it out on your plate and mix your corn bread in it.  Good eatin.

Elsie Rucker Klaiber: I’ll tell you what I liked. I was like my daddy [David Leander Rucker]. I always liked pork. Back bones and ribs cooked down to thick broth. And then make hot biscuits.

John Henry Klaiber: Terri, they’d dig out a little hole and throw straw and leaves in it and put the potatoes in it. Pile the potatoes on up.  Then throw straw or leaves on over it, throw dirt all around and up over it that thick. … That would keep them all winter.

Elsie Rucker Klaiber: And turnips the same way.

John Henry Klaiber: And cabbage. You turn a cabbage upside down and cover it over. Let the roots stick up out of the ground and it will keep all winter.

 Elsie Rucker Klaiber: You would go to town in the Fall in your wagons and bet a barrel of flour and a barrel of meal. And they always had a pantry.

John Henry Klaiber: No they usually ground their own corn for meal.

Elsie Rucker Klaiber: But they put the meal in one barrel and they had a great big biscuit board … that covered two barrels and we had a little pantry. And you reached down in there and got  your, I seen my mother, get biscuit dough out. Get the flour and she would put it out and make a great big lot of biscuits leaving that other stuff in there. All that good buttermilk. She could pat them out and she would make pasteries. She never would make one pie. She would make half a dozen pies on the weekend. Cause you know there was company coming in car load and wagon load after wagon load.  We lived in the big house there at Mavity and everyone came for the weekend from town. They would drive their, you know, buggy and drive out for the weekend to Barb’s house. They made two gallon of ice cream and had a big chocolate cake. 

John Henry Klaiber: Now apples. They would either put a wooden barrel or make an A frame. You didn’t put them in like you did potatoes. You went into them oftener than you did potatoes. You’d always leave a door opening so you could get in there and get some apples out. … If you went in and got you some you’d get them out and then take your shovel and shovel your dirt back against the door to cover it all up.

Elsie Rucker Klaiber: You had pork and chicken on Sunday and that was all you had unless somebody killed a beef. You know it would break a leg or something … and you would have the best steak you ever ate.  … But Terri you didn’t have to buy very much, you know, produce, from town, like we do now.

Stay tuned for a little bit about home made brew!

Saving Voices Part 2

Compiled by Teresa Martin Klaiber

May 2011

This is the second installment of Saving Voices. Extractions from a cassette tape recorded at the Klaiber farm, Long Branch Road, Boyd County, Kentucky, the summer of 1978.  The tape has started to deteriorate and now has been converted to .wav.

John Henry Klaiber:  … the McWhorter’s, Jim McWhorter’s girls lived up here. Well they wasn’t girls they was old women.

[McWhorter’s lived at the end of Long Branch across the Boyd County line in Carter County, Kentucky.] 

Elsie Rucker Klaiber: …I went there when I was first married [married 1939].

John Henry Klaiber: And I went by there one day and they keep two hogs and when they fed em, one would get over in the pen with the other hog and  take a stick to keep the other one away til it ate.  Then when it ate the other one would get over and feed her hog and keep the other one away.

Elsie Rucker Klaiber: They were the descendents of Dr. McWhorter, the heart specialist in Ashland.

John Henry Klaiber: And they bought two pigs off dad one time and I took them up there on horses and maybe a sled. Anyway I took them up to em.  They put the money in my overall pocket up here and took a needle and sewed it up.

Elsie Rucker Klaiber: Afraid he would lose it.  I have penned many of dollar bills in Jimmy’s pocket  when he would go down and take his grandmother some money or something for something.

John Henry Klaiber: They [McWhorter’s] were dandies.

Elsie Rucker Klaiber:  I went up there to see them.  John took me up there to see them.  John just drove through and down the creek up and around in the old pickup truck, when we was first married and this old log house.  It was so fascinating.  Big fire place. And the women were kinda, they didn’t want anyone to come because nobody hardly came because it was so far. And I tell you I sat there and looked at Mrs. Klaiber [Julina Leota Sexton Horton Klaiber] and John.  We was looking at the fire and we was talking and I saw that cedar chest. It was one of those chests  on chests. They call them blanket chests. Oh that was the most beautiful thing. How I would have loved to have that. I just sat there and wished for that the whole time.  And I heard when they moved they moved the furniture out on a sled some way over the hill and I just wondered if it broke that chest.  And they took me back.  I had never seen anyone drying pumpkins.  Of course I had to ask for a drink or something. [Saving Voices to be continued next blog.]

Today Long Branch Road pavement ends at the Carter County, Kentucky line.  The road continues as gravel until it dead ends at the hillside within Carter County, Kentucky.  The McWharter home stood at the end of the road on the left side and was finally torn down about six years ago.   Denton, Kentucky is just over the hill.  To get to Denton from Long Branch one must either ride a horse or possibly attempt it with a 4-wheeler, even today.

The McWharter sisters in the taped story are America Ella, born November 1868,  and Elizabeth A. McWharter born about 1869.  They were the daughter's of James McWharter and wife Margaret Davis and the grand daughters of Harvey McWharter and America Ulen.

Evelyn Scyphers Jackson did an article on the Harvey McWharter family in her column "Boyd County Ancestors" published in the Press-Observer in January 1976.    By then Evelyn wrote "...the home place stands abandoned at the head of the left fork (Long Branch) of Garner, just across the Boyd County line, in Carter County. Nat Burke had a new roof put on and used the building to store hay while he owned it."

The girls father James McWharter purchased  the property containing 87 acres on 15 February 1871 from John and Ann Hazlett.

In the story Elsie worries about the chest being damaged when moved "over the hill."  Both the sisters went to live with their brother John L. McWharter in Denton, Carter County.  The only way to get the furniture across the hill would be with horse and wagon and even then it would be a rough ride.

Elsie retained an undated clipping of the death of Miss Elizabeth Ann "McWhartar" in her scrapbook.

"Funeral services for Miss Elizabeth Ann McWhartar, 89, of Denton, KY., will be conducted ...today at the residence of her brother John L. McWhartar at Denton...burial will be in the family cemetery..."

America Ella died 1 February 1936.  This is prior to the marriage of the Klaibers.  There were only two McWharter daughters in this family.  Either Elsie & John visited prior to her marriage or another lady has moved in with Elizabeth in 1939.  America and Elizabeth were residing together in the house in 1930 when the census was taken. America Ella is buried in McWharter Cemetery as well.  Their brother John L. McWharter died 24 March 1957 at Denton at the age of 86.

Their parents, James and Margaret Davis McWharter are also buried in McWharter Cemetery at the end of Long Branch Road on the left side of the road on the hill.

James W. McWharter 2 Jan 1842 - 24 Nov 1919

Margaret McWharter 23 Feb 1844 - 2 Aug 1920

This series of Saving Voices will be continued as the story unfolds with memories of drying those pumpkins leads to many details about food on the table in rural Boyd County, Kentucky.

Saving Voices

Saving Voices

Compiled by Teresa Martin Klaiber

May 2011

Cassette tapes became the rage in the 1960’s.  In 1966 music cassettes were introduced to those of us "want to be" flower children, hippies and the world at large. 

By 1969 I was working at the University of Kentucky Language Laboratory  with what seemed to be miles of reel to reel, humidity controlled tapes playing to booths for students in many languages.  Some of the reels were converted to cassettes for student use and one of my jobs was transcribing materials.

It became a habit for me to carry a tape recorder when possible when pursuing genealogical and historical data.  Today it is imperative that those old tapes be transferred to new media just like we have moved our 8mm movies from VHS to DVD. Today I carry a digital recorder no bigger than the palm of my hand in my purse.

Because of tinkering with the “new” technology, this past Christmas I presented my daughter-in-law with a voice recording of her husband when he was 3 months old.  Ok, no, he could not talk but I could listen to those coo’s forever. Converted from cassette tape to a digital .wav file I can listen to my "baby" any time I sit here at the computer.  Another treasure is a very short description by my mother [now with Alzheimers] describing my grandmother’s heartbreak at the loss of her Baby Grand Piano in the 1937 flood in Portsmouth, Ohio.  

One tape is the Klaiber family at the Klaiber farm, Long Branch Road, Big Garner, Boyd County, Kentucky the summer of 1978.  The tape has deteriorated in several places but a large percentage has been salvaged and converted to .wav format for future generations. 

The background sounds are as much a joy to this writer as is the history my in-laws were sharing.  The background is full of giggles and laughs of my then seven, five and three year old sons.  We had traveled from New Jersey back “home.” For Kentucky is home no matter where we are.  The boys were growing up in urban New Jersey and we did not want them to miss the experience and love we have of our family and Kentucky.

Today, I sit writing in a newer house, looking out at the old house where this tape was recorded and feeling the presence of those wonderful people who are laid to rest on this land that they loved.  How wonderful to hear their voices yet again. 

I have taken the liberty of transcribing, extracting and annotating entries for my readers that I think are a window into life in my part of Eastern Kentucky.  My comments are in brackets.

John Henry Powell Sexton Klaiber: …If I was out there plowing and break a plow he [JH’s father James Mathew Klaiber, a blacksmith] never said nothing about it, went to the shop and fixed it. For I’ve seen him break a few of them.  See back then you had stumps in the field. The first thing you know, why, you’d hang your plow on that stump and before you could stop your team you would have it broke. I’d rather go right out there and work a team as a tractor in the field.

Teresa Martin Klaiber: Why? Does it do a better job?

John Henry Klaiber: Well you don’t get as much done but you get the pleasure of following em. You can plow the ground with a team and you can see what you is turning over and walk along behind them there and more work. Course you can’t get nothing done anymore. When you get out there and plow with a tractor all you see is the front of you; you don’t see nothing your turning up.  That’s why they don’t find, people farming, don’t find any arrow heads or things like that anymore. Get up there on a tractor you not going to see them.

Teresa Martin Klaiber: You had a whole collection of arrow heads once didn’t you?

John Henry Klaiber: I guess the last one found around here you [talking to son James David Klaiber] found it over there one day was in pretty good shape.

James David Klaiber: Where is it at now?

John Henry Klaiber: I don’t know. I think you had it last time I seen it.

Teresa Martin Klaiber: I don’t think Ian [John Ian Klaiber, grandson of John Henry Klaiber] has ever seen one. Daddy [John Geer Martin, DVM] used to come home with them when he would make a call once in awhile.

John Henry Klaiber [as family looks in hutch]. Rattle snake rattlers in there…

John Henry Klaiber: …Get up Bolts Fork… There at Bill Queen’s.  You went in there to Slick Rock School House. Down in the creek and on up the creek bed until you got up to where Elmer Bowling lived. I went along in the truck that way. 

Teresa Martin Klaiber: Up the creek?  …You mean they would follow the creek all the way up from the Mouth of Garner all the way in here before there was a road?

John Henry Klaiber: I guess so. That is what dad said when he came in here. I don’t know if it was from the mouth of Garner or the mouth of Jack or what.

Teresa Martin Klaiber: But there was no road up here?

John Henry Klaiber: Well right up here in front of Mead’s you went down in the creek there and over around that old Beech Tree.  You know where that old Beech Tree is there. Come around the creek and out in front of Cline’s [Stewart] house and up in the creek behind Bill Bradley’s trailer, there, and on up and come out of the creek above Ray Tolliver’s and then around the hill.  

You know where the old house [Sexton] was over here at the Boys Farm, the one that is burnt down. You come around the hill there. Of course when you come off the main road you went down the bank and down into the creek and come around and up the creek a piece and come out in that bottom. You would come up to the old house and went straight down and across the bottom and back in the creek and from there on up the hollow… Earl’s [Sexton] dad [William Vincent Sexton], his old wagon tires in dry weather would get loose from the rim. They’d take and put them in water and soak them up. He put his wagon wheels over there in the creek ... one day, and Carl Ross down here started to take the girls home one night in the buggy and went down there and his horse got tangled up. Carl told me about that about half a dozen times. Imagine a horse stepping in wagon wheels down there in the creek…

Terri, I guess I was in the sixth grade [about 1922] I walked off the hill here and worked for an old man all summer. Hoed corn, pitched hay. Well it wasn’t exactly all summer but off and on. And he gave me fifty cents a day and I had to have a lantern to get over there and I had to have a lantern to get back.  Dark when I went over and dark when I came back.  When school started I told him I wouldn’t be back. Said I’d go up to the house to be paid. Well we started up through the barn yard and he had a pair of yearling calves that he had broke to work. He said I’ll give you them calves and square off with you. I said I’ll have to have a yoke. He said I’ll let you have the yoke to take them home with. And I said no, when the yoke goes over there it’s not coming back. It’s mine when I leave here with it.  He said “I can’t let you have my yoke.” Why I said give me the money. I knew he wouldn’t turn loose of the money.  He gave me the calves and the yoke.

Teresa Martin Klaiber: Is that the yoke that is out in the shed?

John Henry Klaiber: uhah [no]. I don’t know I brought them home.

Elsie Rucker Klaiber: His daddy made that one in the shed.

John Henry Klaiber:  Come home from school one day and dad gave me a fifty dollar bill. He had sold my calves.  That is what I got for a summer’s work.

Teresa Martin Klaiber: That’s not bad.

Elsie Rucker Klaiber: Thought he was rich.

John Henry Klaiber: That fifty dollar bill looked like it was bigger than that wall. And then I never seen a fifty dollar bill again til I was working at the store. I delivered a bunch of stuff over here to Millard Prichard. Well he was the one that bought my calves. Millard was. And he came out there and paid me for the order. He gave me a fifty dollar bill.  He said “Here I am going to give you another one.” [JH chuckling.]…I’ve never seen one since that one. See you didn’t see big money then and pretty much of any kind.  But this old man over there he wouldn’t spend a dime. He kept every dime he got ahold of. He had a big ole yarn sock and had it half full of dimes…If anything was ten cents he would give them two nickels or a quarter. He wouldn’t spend a dime. He kept them dimes.

Teresa Martin Klaiber:  Well the yoke out in the barn, your daddy made that Elsie said? Will it rot out there?

John Henry Klaiber: No. It really ought to have been painted.  It’s still over there. Ain’t got no bow.

Teresa Martin Klaiber: What do you mean it ought to be painted? Treated some way so it won’t rot?

John Henry Klaiber: Well keep it some better. But it is sun cracked. It’s made out of small timber.

 With rattle snake rattles tucked in the hutch, yokes safely hung and protected  and voices of long ago children giggling and making their own memories of their grandparents, the warmth of  voices past envelopes me. Please join me again for Part 2 of Saving Voices in my next post.  In future posts you will find out about leather britches, kraut and German lessons.  Until then think about saving the voices in your life.

Carter County, Kentucky Court Orders

Carter County Court Order Book #2

Extracted by Teresa Martin Klaiber

Spelling has not been modified

P. 355 Jan 1859 John McGuire, Judge

Stephen J. England appointed commissioner to lease out poor house property...make arrangements to keep the paupers for term of 12 months from the end of James Richards lease...present poor house keeper to make report...1 March 1860.

P. 357 Motion David Davis ordered Solomon Kirk, James McGuire and Bryan Fannin or any two...view for a change in East Fork Road leading from Greenup County line to the Lawrence County line crossing the lands of David Davis in Carter County....motion John C. Eastham...above viewer for new road leading from East Fork road near Ellington's Bear Creek to Greenup county line interceding with a road leading to Johnson's Mill.

March 1859

p. 376 ordered motion of Bryan Fannin that Mark Sexton, John Y. Montgomery and C.P. Banfield or any two view nearest way for change in road passing over lands of Bryant Fannin...

P. 383 J.Y. Montgomery and CP Banfield produced report...said change is completed and ordered road be established as part of county as reviewed.

March 1859 p 383 Motion of Mortica? Menix that William McCormick, Wm Carter, James Burchett or any two view new road leading from the slate lick at co road to William Brumfield's mill...

P 384

Motion of J.Y. Montgomery that James Kilgore, George Bradley, CP Banfield or any two view way for new road commencing at co road near Allen Prichard's in direction of Isom Hogans Mill.

P., 385 Ordered that the books, records and papers of Young Y. Montgomery late Justice of the peace be transferred to James Kilgore Justice elect.

P. 397 Motion of James Bush that Joseph Sexton, James A. Wilhite and James A. Reeves or any two view nearest new road leading from Lawrence County line at head of Lost Fork down Lost Fork passing Jordan's, James Bush and Isom Gillem to Ezekiel Rice's mill on Little Fork.

P. 399 July 1859 William McCormick and William Carter return new road leading from Slate lick to William Brumfield's mill on Tygert...report filed...

P. 399 July 1859 James Kilgore, CP Banfield and GL Bradley review of road commencing at or near Jonathon Galian's to county road near Allen Prichard's...Bryan Fannin, Thomas Galien appeared and consent said road will be established over his lands...sum is ordered to issue against Thomas Galien, Jesse Bradley, RM Biggs, Allen Prichard returnable next term to show cause why road shall not be established.

P. 436 Sept 1859 ordered new road from head of Strait Creek to forks of Garner be established as county road.  Ordered Isaac Fannin appointed overseer of county road leading from Strait Creek to forks of Garner and call on hands at forks of Garner thence up Garner to head including all hands on Bolts Fork....dig 12 ft and cut 30 feet.

P. 459 November 1859 James Reeves and Joseph Sexton reviewers of road leading from Lost Fork at Lawrence line to Ezekiel Rice's Mill filed...issue against James Bush, James Jordan, Isom Gillem, Fleming B. Rice, Joseph Sexton, Walter Shear, Sararie Rucker, Milton Kennedy, Ira Crisman, James Galliher and Ezekiel Rice...return next court...

P. 460 Nov. 1859 Solomon Kirk, James McGuire, Bryan Fannin view new road leading from East Fork road near mouth of Ellington Bear Creek to Greenup Co intersect with road leading to Johnson's mill...filed their report.

P. 490 March 1860 Motion of Bryan Fannin who desired change in road leading from Thomas Gallion's to mouth of Garner ordered CP Banfield, Lindsey Fannin and James Kilgore or any two view nearest ...passing over lands of Bryant Fannin....

P. 491 Motion of AP Ratcliff desires change of road passing over lands of Ratcliff ordered that Wm McCormick, Jesse Gambill and Daniel Underwood or any two may act...for change of county road leading and passing over the old Cascade Smith Farm on Buffalo.

P. 491 Ordered CH Stewart, Thomas Glancy and Jonathon Galion or any two may act to view nearest and best way and change in road leading from forks of Strait creek to Thomas Galiens....

P. 492 March 1860 James McGuire, Solomon Kirk and Bryan Fannin filed road passing over lands of Davis...same established....

P. 531 September 1860 Ordered that Jonathon Galien overseer in place of Charles H. Stewart resigned over age of the road leading from CH Stewart to Thomas Galiens ...call hands all on Dawson Branch on Strait Creek up Strait Creek to CH Stewart's thence up left hand fork to head...thence to head of Williams Creek to Thomas Galiens including all hands of Williams creek above.

P. 532 Ordered that Jonathon Galien appointed Supervisor to open and change road from CH Stewart's to Thomas Galien and call on hands....beginning at Mt. Savage furnace including Mt. Savage thence up Strait Creek to head thence to Williams Creek and hands of Williams Creek from P. Norton's up to its head ...all hands on Stinsen Creek....

P. 548 December 1860 Motion H.S. Rice and Isom Gillem desire private passway ...ordered Absolem Jordan Daniel Foster, Joseph Sexton or any two may act...view best way for private pass from house of Isom Gillem's to Strait Creek Road at the land or near where widow Roda Trout lives....

P. 559 released from county levy for 1859...among others is Archibald Rice....Elijah Rice for 1859-60...

Mains Family Research Opens doors to Friends

compiled by Teresa Martin Klaiber 

April 2011

Those of us that live in Eastern Kentucky have rich histories from all corners of the world.  My maternal line has wonderful Quaker heritage dotted with great stories including the Mains, McGrew and Ong families.

Today there are three Friends Meeting Houses in Kentucky: Berea, Louisville and Lexington.  Least you think Kentucky does not have Quaker heritage let me remind you that Daniel Boone was a Quaker.  Dear Myrtle addressed migration of Quakers into Kentucky in her advise column which is very informative.

As I sat down to scan my Mains family materials I realized that I have not reviewed these treasured documents in some time.  I descend from Culbert Mains who died in 1761 in York County, Pennsylvania by his son Robert Mains.  

I joined the NSDAR, in the state of New Jersey, under Robert Mains in 1979 [#635867].  Robert was a Pvt. 8th Class in the Cumberland County Militia 6th Battalion. Looking at the application I am flooded with memories.  Both the Regent, Rowena Robinson Billos, and Registrar, Esther Adalaide Gerald,  dear friends, are now deceased as is one of the ladies that endorsed my papers.  My sons called her the "Cookie lady."  Kathryn Burkley never failed to give my sons healthy oatmeal cookies and was honored to get the name. Her friendship brings back many memories. The final endorsement was by my now lifelong close friend Denise Plested.

It is not just researching and learning about your ancestors but about the journey and the people and friends you make along the way.  When I started looking at the Mains family I was quickly told to contact a distant cousin in Cambridge, Ohio.  Little did I know how that journey would play out.

Mary Bernice Johns did not just hand me the genealogy I was seeking.  She rather gave me a treasured scavenger hunt.  It was the early 1970's and we resided in New Jersey.  I would ask a question and in return receive little cards and messages with rhymes saying "If you look for - such and such book - you might find a clue."  With little children under tow I would seek out the valued item or publication and then write her once again excited with my find.   I especially enjoyed a one line note that said simply "You know you have a link to Ong's Hat."  What fun!  Of course we visited Ong's Hat.  

Blessed living within proximity of the Pennsylvania Historical Society, Swarthmore, Rutgers and many other resources I began to put together the proper lineage.

Little did I know that in just a few years our relationship would grow and our lives would touch each others.  In time our personal lives took us back to beloved Ohio where I realized I was just a few short miles from Mary Johns home.  I could not wait to meet this lady who seemed to be such a character.  I carefully followed directions to her home.  It was not hard to find.

 

Mary Bernice Johns lived in a two story pink house - solid pink - really pink and not hard to find.  I was greeted with "If you want anything I have you must wait til I die."  I assured her I came to see her and was a bit confused by that first greeting.  But something told me this meeting was good for both of us.  I told her I had saved every note she had mailed me.  She cackled loudly and said "I was afraid you would not write any more if I gave it all to you at once."  I quickly realized she was lonely and I looked forward to our friendship.

Mary Bernice Johns  never married and spent her life teaching in Cambridge, Ohio.  She was devoted to her only brother Llewellyn James Johns [1899-2002].  As I crossed the threshold I entered a world of large floral pink everything.  She proudly told me she had even designed the carpet that matched the pink floral drapes.  

She had extraordinary ideas.  Besides teaching she created and patented several glass paperweights.  

Mary was born 20 March 1902 in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania.  She was the daughter of John Arthur Johns and Armintha Brown.  Her recall was wonderful and we had many chats about ancestors and her genealogy adventures.  Our visits eventually included trips to the doctors and dentist as she struggled to stay independent.  Finally one day she called and said she had checked herself into the nursing home.  

Visits in the nursing home were short as she declined and a guardianship auction was arranged.  True to her character instructions were carried out by her brother's caregiver and her Power of Attorney.  The auctioneer called stating that when they moved the items for auction there were instructions for boxes of genealogy that I was to share with another cousin on the Brown side.  At that time I had no idea that these materials would include correspondence beginning in 1925 that would become instrumental in my continued research.

Besides the materials that were set aside for us, I attended the auction.    The following describes some of her beloved belongings  from the letter I wrote the Brown cousin the following day.  "...the teddy bear brought $900.00 as did the carpet in the living room.  The corner cabinet brought $2,700.00.  One piece that drew my attention was a ...chest...that the auctioneer described as about 1810 made in western PA.  ...enclosed are the tin types ...two brown envelopes are stock pictures...majority ...are marked as McKeesport or the area...there were over seven whale oil lamps...None sold for less than $200.00...The only piece that you may be disappointed that I did not purchase was a stock photograph of a stage and team with a sign across the stage stating Arkansas Transport.  There were four or five in the open stage and the driver.  the back said simply "J. A. Brown."...it sold for $65.00...I purchased some of her original art for the paperweights, a piece of copper luster creamer and...Among her original art work [paper weight] were notarized statements  that these were her original designs ...I will place them in the Cambridge Museum..." 

I was also contacted by the real estate agent that needed books and left over papers cleared from the house.  I am so thankful for that call for we retrieved even more family history and donated historical books to the school library where she had taught.

Mary Bernice Johns died 4 March 1994.  As my husband and I walked into the funeral we thought we were in the wrong place.  Only two gentleman were in attendance: her brother and his caregiver.  Llewelyn hugged and thanked me for being her friend.  We quietly waited and not one single person attended this woman's final good byes.  I had no idea that besides being a distant cousin that I truly was the only friend she seemed to have in the end.  No matter what her life had been with others she had been a good mentor to me in many ways.   She is buried in Mt. Vernon Cemetery, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania.

Among the correspondents and materials are letters from Scott Lee Boyd author of The Boyd Family and Leota Huemme Koontz author of the Koontz Family And Relatives. Photographs included a circa 1930's view of Finley Mains home in Sewickley Township, Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania.  Comparing with 1979 photographs provided by a fellow researcher the house had weathered well.

 Not only did this portion of my life journey teach me about my Quaker Friends heritage I acquired many new friends.

Often I think we pursue our genealogy quest and correspond with many, even more so, with internet technology, without really taking the time to get to know the people sharing the information. Every person mentioned has left me with a lesson in life and I am a better person for knowing each of them.

Mary Bernice Johns, Armintha Brown Johns, Nancy Mains Brown , Jacob Mains, Finley Mains & wife Jane Watson, James Mains & wife Rebecca McGrew, Robert Mains, Culbert Mains.

Teresa Lynn Martin, Mary Helen Feyler Martin, Howard Clayton Feyler, Dessie Mae Clayton Feyler, Anna Jane Graham Clayton, Mary Jane Mains Graham, Finley Mains & wife Jane Watson, James Mains & wife Rebecca McGrew, Robert Mains, Culbert Mains.